Terrell Owens celebrates his first quarter touchdown. The 49ers played the Seattle Seahawks at Seahawk Stadium.
PAUL CHINN/S.F. CHRONICLE

Photo: PAUL CHINN

Terrell Owens celebrates his first quarter touchdown. The 49ers...

Image 2 of 4

After autographing the ball, Terrell Owens hand delivered the game ball to a fan in the stands after scoring the game-winning TD. The 49ers played the Seattle Seahawks at Seahawk Stadium.
PAUL CHINN/S.F. CHRONICLE

Photo: PAUL CHINN

After autographing the ball, Terrell Owens hand delivered the game...

Image 3 of 4

Zack Bronson (left) celebrates his interception with Jeff Ulbrich in the first quarter. The 49ers played the Seattle Seahawks at Seahawk Stadium.
PAUL CHINN/S.F. CHRONICLE

Photo: PAUL CHINN

Zack Bronson (left) celebrates his interception with Jeff Ulbrich...

Image 4 of 4

Jason Webster (36) and Derek Smith (50) team up to bring down Seattle's Bobby Engram in the first quarter. The 49ers played the Seattle Seahawks at Seahawk Stadium.
PAUL CHINN/S.F. CHRONICLE

2002-10-15 04:00:00 PDT Seattle -- In a shiny new stadium, in a new NFC West world, under the gleaming lights of Monday night in the Pacific Northwest, the 49ers turned to their brightest star. Terrell Owens, after all, glows with intensity and panache at times like this.

So it was that 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia, his team trailing in the fourth quarter, lofted a long pass down the left sideline. It was headed for Owens, racing with Seattle Seahawks Pro Bowl cornerback Shawn Springs, and when Owens leaped to snatch it from the air, he pulled down a victory, too. He romped into the end zone with the go-ahead 37-yard touchdown in the 49ers' punch/counterpunch 28-21 win over Mike Holmgren's Seahawks. Owens did not stop there.

In a turn both gaudy and shocking, Owens pulled a Sharpie pen from his sock -- a Sharpie! From his sock! -- and signed the ball while in the end zone. Ever the showman, he trotted over to Springs' private suite and handed it to a man while ABC's cameras rolled. Turns out the man, Greg Eastman, is the financial adviser for both Owens and Springs, but it was Owens who was the 49ers' money man in the moment.

"It's a T.O. thing," Owens said, cheeky in the aura of a victory. "My coach in college always said: 'Always shine brightest when the lights are on.' "

It was outrageous stuff, but call it the signature play of a signature win: On the road, on Monday night, against a division foe, a comeback from deficits in both the first and second halves, and coach Steve Mariucci trumping his mentor, Holmgren, in another meeting of Yoda and Luke.

Before Owens' star turn in the fourth, a 99-yard drive from the 49ers had temporarily regained a lead and given the club its most cohesive offensive series of the year.

So much came out of this game, ultimately. The 49ers soared to 4-1, maintaining sole possession of first place in the NFC West; Seattle tumbled to 1-4, fading into near-irrelevance already.

"There were so many things that were key," Mariucci said, "not to mention a 99-and-a-half-yard drive, coming off our goal line, for a touchdown. To put it in the end zone was huge."

And of Owens' penmanship, surely the play for which this game will always be remembered?

"I just learned about it," Mariucci said in a conference room off the 49ers' locker room. "That's a new one. I haven't seen that one before . . . I don't know. We don't teach that."

The coach did not sound peeved; mostly puzzled, really. He was more concerned with the road win, and noted the rugged route the 49ers took to secure it.

Faced with a desperate and hungry Seahawks team, the 49ers needed something special. Their 10-0 lead in the first quarter -- built partly with an Owens 8- yard touchdown pass from Garcia -- dissipated when Seattle quarterback Trent Dilfer rose up and played with life and passion. He was helped by a Seattle defense that orchestrated devastating blitzes for which the 49ers had no first- half answers.

Dilfer seized the rhythm of the game and, unharried by a mute 49ers pass rush, led a 69-yard touchdown drive, ending with a 5-yard pass to fullback Mack Strong. Dilfer, roaring, pumped his fists for the rally-rag-waving crowd of 66,420.

Later, when Seattle punt returner Bobby Engram broke a return 61 yards for a score, it seemed as if his race up the field was fueled by the roars of a stadium that felt urgency. The half was turning, bleeding Seattle blue.

"It was sloppy," Mariucci said.

The 49ers trailed 14-13 at halftime and faced a crossroads. Things happened in that halftime locker room, adjustments to the blitz, and a renewed commitment to the run, not to mention a Pro Bowl receiver sliding a Sharpie down near his ankle, nodding to running back Kevan Barlow that he would provide a show in the fourth quarter.

"I knew he would make the big play," Barlow said.

But first, the 99-yard drive. Not since the epic Monday night game in Anaheim in December 1989, the Joe Montana-to-John Taylor game, had the 49ers rolled 99 yards for a touchdown.

Finding seams when Seattle blitzed, the 49ers ran the ball on eight of 12 plays, using both tailbacks, Barlow and Garrison Hearst, and using another seldom-seen facet of the 49ers' attack: Garcia's scrambling. Garcia eventually ran seven times for 48 yards, but only one was designed -- a Seahawks-crushing bootleg just after the two-minute warning for a first down to seal the victory.

Garcia's scramble in the big drive was 7 yards to the 15. Hearst got it to the 6-yard line, and then Barlow, the dancing, twisting, second-year back who has shown such fresh legs and even fresher moves, made an artful cutback in his 6-yard touchdown run.

"We let them off the hook," Holmgren sighed.

Said Garcia: "Huge. The ball was backed up, and the crowd was into the game,

big-time . . . that can be a game-winner, in a lot of ways, a momentum- changer."

The 49ers led 20-14, then braced themselves for Seattle's answer: 76 yards in eight plays, capped by a Shaun Alexander touchdown. Call it 21-20, Seattle, crank up the nocturnal crowd and then cue cornerback Ahmed Plummer for a fourth-quarter interception, a ball tipped at the line by end Chike Okeafor.

The play was yet another component in a game ripe with story lines: turnovers. The 49ers forced two -- safety Zack Bronson's first-quarter pick set up the 49ers' first touchdown -- and committed none.

Really, what Plummer's pick did was call in the stagehands and arrange the props for Owens down the sideline, Owens in the air, Owens in the end zone, and Owens in the impromptu autograph business. The Seahawks grumbled after the game, but the 49ers strutted out into the cool night and flew home winners.

"I was just trying to be creative and have fun," Owens said. "I had a feeling I was going to score."

Said Garcia, unable to suppress a smile: "That's T.O. being T.O. . . . in a lot of ways."